Spiffy:

Iffy:

No options for longer games or uniforms; how will the play feel on a keyboard?

One of the biggest complaints leveled at MMOs is that they're time sinks. It's simply impossible to get anywhere without investing more of your life than most people are comfortable with. The other big complaint is that they seem to be stuck in the fantasy genre, with few games taking a chance and really exploring new territory. FreeStyle Street Basketball is a new MMO out of Korea that aims to answer both objections at once. FreeStyle aims to let players stop questing for Armor of Uberness in 4-hour clips and instead have fun draining the rock, leveling up and gearing up, all in 5-minute play sessions. We took a look at the game at a recent pre-E3 event held by Vivendi.

On the surface, FreeStyle Street Basketball seems to take a lot of inspiration from other casual basketball titles like NBA Street. The game is rendered in an attractive cel-shaded style, and the title sports a variety of venues ranging from neighborhood parks all the way up to professional-looking arenas complete with scoreboards and overpriced beer. The game supports one-on-one, three-on-three, and five-on-five games. The difference between this game and standard sports titles, however, is that every other player on screen will be controlled by a human being elsewhere in the world, and the road to greatness is blocked by a whole lot of these living, breathing obstacles.

Players enter the world of FreeStyle Street Basketball by creating an avatar. The game will ship with a full suite of character customization options, including the ability to alter skin tone, sex, hair style, and a variety of other body features. Once their digital rep enters the world as a level 1 rookie, they begin building up experience points with every pick-up game and scheduled event they participate in. The goal, of course, is to build up your character's level and eventually become a round-ball god just dripping with mad skillz, tons of ice, the freshest gear, and possibly a paternity suit from that one hazy night in Phoenix.

The most interesting aspect of the game, however, is the way FreeStyle Street Basketball is working to create an MMO for ultra-casual gamers through both its play style and its business model. Games will only be five minutes in length. That means that, factoring in the time it takes to get a game together, this is the kind of MMO the average person can reasonably play on a lunch hour. The game will also ship without a monthly fee. In fact, the game even refunds the purchase price back to the player by giving him or her the equivalent in in-game currency (called "blingy") when the player starts up.

FreeStyle Street Basketball is looking to make money via microtransactions. While the game won't force players to do so, the game will come loaded up with all sorts of gear that will cost real-world money to acquire. This will range from shirts, shorts, and sneakers created by famous designers (including some made exclusively for the game) to a variety of hairstyles, pieces of gaudy jewelry and even tattoos. While there will be items in the game that will offer the player a stat boost that can increase their on-court abilities, those will only be available via in-game play. On the other hand, identical items without the stat boost will always be available for purchase, which will at least make the player look cooler while they lose.

The game is planned to ship with a whole set of social tools that will allow players to hook up into teams and schedule all sorts of tournaments and events outside of the official ones that will be held every month. Unfortunately, the game itself wasn't playable, so we were unable to gauge how well the actual gameplay feels on a PC keyboard. There also doesn't seem to yet be an option to implement any kind of team uniforms, which seems to be a requirement for this sort of game. It would also be nice if there were options other than the five-minute pick-up game for players who would like to play a more regulation-style game. FreeStyle Street Basketball is an intriguing concept that we'll keep an eye on as the game gets closer to its early 2007 release.